MIKE NEWELL describes his first taste of football management at Hartlepool United as an experience soured by the interference of directors in team affairs.

MIKE NEWELL describes his first taste of football management at Hartlepool United as an experience soured by the interference of directors in team affairs.

The former Everton striker, (left), can hardly make the same complaint about his current employers because for most of the season Luton Town have not had any directors. Nor owners.

Just a team of accountants fending off financial extinction.

Without the commitment of a group of local businessmen and supporters Luton probably wouldn't have a future at all.

Which is why you won't hear Liverpool-born Newell grumble about the Football League embargo that prevents him signing players.

This week the club hopes to take significant steps towards moving out of administrative receivership and into the control of a consortium headed by Bill Tomlins, a former commercial manager at Kenilworth Road.

The group have been working towards filling the void left by a failed takeover bid fronted by former managing director John Gurney last summer.

The uncertainties and restrictions, not to mention a deferred pay arrangement with the play-ers should have been a recipe for struggle on the field. In fact Luton are performing admirably in the circumstances.

They currently stand two points outside the play-off zone in Division Two and on Saturday play host to Tran-mere Rovers in the fourth round of the FA Cup. The tie is an all-ticket sell out.

Newell, 39 this month, deflects the credit onto his players. He said: "They have got their heads down, concentrated on the football and put in a great effort. There's a good spirit among them.

"We have to contend with injuries and suspensions like everyone else does. The difference for us is we can't bring anyone in. We've had to rely on the players already here and the youngsters coming through the ranks.

"At the start of the season we had five players who need surgery so the League allowed us two loan signings. When we were desperate for a keeper a few months ago the League insisted one of the loan players went back before we could sign him.

"They are effectively restricting us to 20 pros and that includes a 17-year-old keeper who sits on the bench. But we are coping."

Newell had to win over the players and the fans after taking charge last summer.

His popular predecessor Joe Kinnear was dismissed when the secretive Gurney regime moved in and worried supporters demonstrated outside Kenilworth Road.

Gurney then set up a telephone poll for fans to choose the new manager from a shortlist that included Newell, Kinnear and Steve Cotterill.

Newell was announced as the winner by just four votes although it emerged all the players had voted for Kinnear.

"It was natural for the players to stay loyal to Joe," Newell said at the time. But the squad quickly rallied behind the new boss and produced results.

Meanwhile fans voted with their feet and chequebooks against Gurney.

Newell said: "The fans would not back him and they would not renew their season tickets while he was in charge. In the end that got him out.

"Since then they have come back and been very loyal to us. The away support has been phenomenal."

Members of Tomlins' consortium met the Football League board last week and they are confident their takeover bid can go forward.

Newell said: "The League still have to look at certain financial matters and the PFA are involved in the issue of the players' wages because they've taken deferrals. But the future of the club is more certain and we'll be in good hands."

Newell's Luton playing days between January 1986 and September 1987 covered 69 first-team appearances and 19 goals. The Hatters were a top-flight side then and an exciting one boasting high-profile players such as Brian Stein, Ricky Hill and Mick Harford.

Newell recalled: "That team practically picked itself. We had a plastic pitch and a lot of teams did not like coming to Kenilworth Road. It was psychological problem for some of them. We trained on that pitch twice a week and we felt we could beat anyone on it, which we basically did."

After leaving Luton, Newell spent two seasons with Leicester City then joined Everton in the summer of '89. His Goodison career spanned 94 appearances before Everton sold him for a healthy profit in November '91 to Blackburn where he would earn a championship medal.

When Newell finally called time on his playing career he returned to Merseyside to take up a coaching position at Tranmere. He worked as reserve team manager at Prenton Park under former Everton team-mate Dave Watson in the 2001/02 season.

Newell said: "Tranmere was my first time on the other side of the fence and it taught me a few things. It also taught me to be wary of a few things as well."

Prenton Park provided the stepping stone for Newell's first management job at Hartlepool where he inherited a team four points clear at the top of Division Three when he replaced Chris Turner in November 2002.

Hartlepool duly won promotion but as runners-up to Rushden and Diamonds and Newell wasn't asked to stay on. He said: "I enjoyed Hartlepool but it wasn't quite what I expected a manager's job to be like. There was too much interference from the directors' side and I mean a lot of interference.

"But I'm a big believer in fate and I think it happened for the best when they said they would not renew my contract.

"The fact that I had just won promotion at Hartlepool helped me to get the Luton job. Sometimes it's about being in the right place at the right time."